The invention comprises a device and method to estimate the elasticity of soft elastic solids from surface wave measurements. The method is non-destructive, reliable and repeatable. The final device is low-cost and portable. It is based in audio-frequency shear wave propagation in elastic soft solids. Within this frequency range, shear wavelength is centimeter sized. Thus, the experimental data is usually collected in the near-field of the source. Therefore, an inversion algorithm taking into account near-field effects was developed for use with the device. Example applications are shown in beef samples, tissue mimicking materials and in vivo skeletal muscle of healthy volunteers
